Fr om : Annal es of t he New Yor k Academy of Sci ences, 138( 2) , 1967, p.

866- 873
P Pa an ne el l D Di i s s c cu us s s s i i o on n
T
TTI
IIM
MME
EE A
AAN
NND
DD M
MME
EEM
MMO
OOR
RRY
YY
H
HHE
EEI
II N
NNZ
ZZ V
VVO
OON
NN F
FFO
OOE
EER
RRS
SST
TTE
EER
RR (Universit y of Il linoi s, Urbana, Ill. ): I am sorry that
Dr. Whit row is absent this morni ng, because I hoped he would el aborat e upon
some of his deli ght ful remarks of yest erday evening on the relati onship between
time and memory. Since I bel ieve that t his rel ationshi p may be of i nt erest to some
parti cipant s in thi s conference, I wish to add just a few words.
Dr. Whit row said yest erday t hat we know l ittl e about "memory. " I whol e-heartl y
agree but I would like t o add that we know even less about "time". The cause for
this defi ci ency I see i n t he superior survival value for all perceptive and cogniti ve
living organisms i f they succeed t o elimi nat e qui ckl y all temporal aspects i n a
sequence of events or, i n other words, i f "time" i s abandoned as earl y as possi ble
in the chai n of cogniti ve processes. I believe that I can gi ve at l east t wo pl ausi ble
argument s to support this propositi on. The fi rst argument is purel y numeri cal and
att empt s to show the infi nitel y superior economy of a "time-less" memory
compared t o a record whi ch i s isomorphic to the t emporal flow of events. Consider
a finit e "uni verse" which may assume at any parti cul ar inst ant precisel y one of n
possi ble st at es, S
1
; S
2
; S
3
; . . . S
n
. Let m be the l ength of a sequence of st at es:
e. g. :
The number, N, of disti nguishabl e sequences of length m i s equi valent t o the
number of combinations of n disti nct objects t aken m at a time, mult ipli ed wit h the
number of permut ation of m distinct obj ects. This is because t he sequence S
a
S
b
is,
of course, di fferent from the sequence S
b
S
a
. Hence
( )! m n
! n
! m
m
n
N

=
If bot h n and m are large numbers, but n is much l arger than m, one may
approximat e
m
n N
The number of bi nary rel ays to hold t his number - or the "amount of i nformati on"
to be stored - i s approximatel y
H = log
2
N = m l og
2
n = m H
0
bit s,
where H
0
is the amount of information necessary to speci fy one st at e of the
universe. As an exampl e, let us consi der the ret inal mosaic of various excit ed
stat es of its rods and cones as t he st at es of our "visual universe". Conservative
estimat es suggest 32 distingui shabl e st at es for each receptor of whi ch there are
about t wo hundred mill ions in bot h eyes. Hence, the visual universe has
( )
8
10 2
32 n

=
distinguishabl e st at es and
H
0
= l og
2
n = 10
9
bits
1 2 3 4 . . . . m
S
15
S
23
S
4
S
105
. . . . S
22
2
If onl y t en st at es per second are processed by t he reti na - a regul ar movi e proj ector
presents 24 pi ctures per second - t hen during one second a sequence of l ength m =
10 is to be st ored, i. e. ,
H (1 second) = 10
10
bits
However, the enti re brain has "onl y" 10
10
neurons at its disposal. Let us be
optimistic and assume one thousand bits st ored withi n each neuron, t hen in one
thousand seconds - or sl i ghtl y over a quarter of an hour - t he whol e brai n is
flooded with information, most of which may be complet el y worthl ess.
On t he ot her hand, if it were possibl e t o int egrat e t he sequence of a events i nto a
singl e "operat or" that permit s reconst ruction of the sequence, say, "a gall oping
el ephant , " "a fli ght over the Atl anti c, " et c. , the number of distingui shabl e
"macro-st at es" becomes
m
n
N
*
=
and
H
*
= H
0
log
2
m
The compressi on ratio between these t wo met hods of "storage" is simpl y
m
1
n log
m log
1
m
1
H
H
2
2
*

=
If the l ength of the sequence is extended, thi s reduction in uncertai nt y may t ake on
val ues of considerabl e magni tude.
I hast en to demyst ify these "operat ors" whi ch I have just ment ioned. Indeed, they
are perpet ual l y comput ed in our perceptive syst em and t hei r abstracting powers
become apparent in their linguist ic represent ation, usuall y in form of names for
spat ial abst ract s and of verbs for temporal abst racts. In fact, wit hout these
abst racting operators we coul d not conceive of mot ion or of change, and - as an
FI GURE_1. Schemat i c r epr esent at i on of a uni cel l ul ar ani mal
movi ng f r om one spot t o anot her by ext endi ng a t ubul ar pseudopod
and pul l i ng i t sel f up t hr ough t hi s ext ended capi l l ar y.
3
ultimate abst racti on - of t he fl ow of time. Contempl ate for a moment the somewhat
formalized representati on of a uni cellular ani mal moving from one spot to anot her
by extending a tubular pseudopod and pulli ng it self up through t his extended
capill ary (See FIGURE 1, St ages 1-6). However, what we see i n fact is a sequence
of six appariti ons of quit e di stinct shapes of which it is di ffi cult-I bel i eve even
impossibl e-to assert that t hey represent the "same obj ect " unl ess, of course, t he set
of t ransformations i s speci fi ed under whi ch the properti es of this "obj ect " remai n
invari ant . These t ransformations may accommodate spati al as well as t emporal
aspects of the obj ect under consi deration, as can be seen by the li nguisti c
represent ati on of the t ot alit y of events depi ct ed in FIGURE 1: "a unicell ular
animal movi ng from one spot to another by ext ending a tubul ar pseudopod and
pulling it sel f up t hrough t his extended capill ary. " The invari ance of t he sequence
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 is suggest ed by a feel ing of "i nappropri at eness" if any permutation
of t his sequence, say, 2 1 4 3 5 6 is proposed as an alternat e possibilit y.
It is clear t hat it i s due to memory t hat t emporal abstracts can be comput ed and
stored. Although memori es may have some charming aspects, their cruci al test li es
in thei r effi cacy to anti cipat e sequences of event s, in other words, to permit
inductive inferences. The concept ual construct of "time" is, so far as I see it, just a
by-product of our memory, whi ch i n some i nst ances may use "t i me" as a
conveni ent paramet er - a t erti um comparatum, so to say - to indicat e synchroni sm
of events bel ongi ng to t wo or more spatiall y separated sequences. Of course, there
is no need t o refer to time in such comparison, for it is al ways suffici ent to t ake
one sequence as "st andard" and to associat e wit h st andard events the event s of
another sequence as, for inst ance, the antici pat ion of the sequence of event s
regarding Pet er:
[ 1]
"Veri l y I say unto t hee, that this day, even i n this ni ght ,
before the cock crows twi ce, thou shalt deny me t hri ce. "
In parent hesis it may be int eresting to note that t his predi cti on would immedi at el y
lose its punch i f it would use t emporal reference, for i nst ance: " even i n t his
ni ght , before 6:30 a. m. , t hou shalt deny me thri ce. " The i nt ellect ual sl ump one
suffers in this version st ems, I beli eve, from the fact that idealized absolut e, or
Newtonian, time carries no i nformati on: H0. Unfort unat el y, i n spi t e of
considerable efforts by cl ock desi gners to build a perfect clock, this ideal goal has
not yet been att ained. There i s stil l a small residue of uncert aint y H = > 0, whi ch
is due to smal l inaccuraci es of even t he best cl ocks and, ultimat el y, there wi ll be
quantum noi se which will set an absolut e limit to t his enterprise.
Since t hese assert ions whi ch represent my second argument may, at first gl ance,
sound surpri sing, l et me fi rst demonstrat e t hat Newtonian time is a useful but
unnecessary parameter in a compl et e descript ion of the uni verse; second, l et me
bri efl y st at e what I mean by an accurat e clock.
In practi ce an approximation t o Newtonian absolut e t ime, called "ephemeris time, "
is obtai ned i n t wo steps as Dr. McVitti e poi nted out earl ier t his morning. Fi rst the
equati ons of motion in Newt oni an mechanics are solved for vari ous cel estial
bodi es, in part icular for t he di fferent pl anets P
i
. These sol utions usuall y express
the positions r
i
of t hese bodi es i n t erms of a linear paramet er, t, call ed time:
) t ( r r
i i
=
Second, t he scal e of thi s paramet er is adjusted so as t o give the best fit between
observat ion and t he theoreti cal solutions. In fact , this est abli shed scal e fits the
4
observat ions so well that t here i s a residual error of onl y one unit in about 10
11
units.
[ 2]
With this esti mate one may cal culat e the uncert aint y H of reading this
ast ronomi cal clock. With the probability p of making an error
p = 10
- 11
and wi th t he definition of H for a binary choi ce:
H = - p log
2
p (1 - p) log
2
(1 - p),
one fi nds the uncert aint y t o be
H = 3. 8 10
- 10
bits/ unit.
It may be interesting t o det ermine whether thi s small resi due of uncert aint y i s due
to "noise" i n the observed system, that is the pl anets refuse to obey Newt on by
occasional l y performing small extravaganci es in t heir otherwi se predi ct abl e
behavior, or whet her t his noi se is i ntroduced by the t ransmi ssion channel , t hat is
by inaccuraci es of observati on due t o random fluctuations i n t he at mosphere, in
the opti cal equipment or i n the eval uation of dat a.
If the l att er shoul d be t he case, then thi s uncert aint y can be made arbi traril y small
on the basis of Shannon' s
[ 3]
far reaching theorem whi ch stat es that if the same
sequence of si gnals i s repeat ed agai n and agai n t he effect of errors (wi t hin cert ai n
limits) that are int roduced during transmission can be made arbit rari l y smal l. This
princi ple of "Reli abil it y through Redundancy" is most effect ivel y appli ed in all
periodic or repetitive phenomena. All "clocks, " for inst ance, are based on peri odi c
event sequences, and envi ronmental periodi citi es can be recognized, or absorbed,
by the geneti c code of reproducing and mut ati ng li ving organi sm by programming
these peri odi citi es into the organism in t he form of ci rcadian rhyt hms: "Even i f
you read me poorl y, i f you read me often enough, you will get my message. "
If I should make a guess as to t he causes of the small resi due of uncert aint y left i n
est abli shing ephemeris time, I would venture to say t hat they come indeed from a
cert ain capri ciousness of t he pl anets, for the channel noise has most probabl y been
elimi nat ed by the prolonged observation of t hese peri odi c event s.
Aft er having assured ourselves t hat thi s paramet er "ti me" is universal
*)
and does
not change scal e from pl anet t o planet , we can now eliminat e it from the set of
equati ons which represent the posi tions of t he pl anets as a functi on of this
paramet er by sel ecting the posi tions of one pl anet
0
r as reference for t he posi t i ons
of all others:
) r ( R r
0 i i
=
In other words, one would, for inst ance, tell t he position of Mars in reference to
the position of Venus, et c. Adhering to this scheme, appoi ntments would be made
in thi s form: " we shall meet aft er the sun has risen twi ce. " Of course, thi s is
precisel y t he method outli ned earli er in which si mult aneit y of event s bel ongi ng t o
different sequences are used to establish the "when" of an event of one sequence
by reference t o a parti cul ar event of a st andard sequence.

*)
That i s wi t hi n t he fr amewor k of Newt on' s equat i ons of mot i on.
5
For practi cal purposes, however, it is conveni ent to have a hi ghl y redundant si gnal
generator - a rel iable clock - which facil itates the est imates of the simultaneit y of
events in a l arge number of sequences. Clearl y, such a device should not inj ect
into t he universe of observati on unwant ed uncert aint ies, i . e. , each subsequent state
shoul d be well det ermined by its predecessor. This is most easil y accomplished i f
this device goes at a const ant rat e, whi ch gi ves t he addi tional advant age t hat such
a device may read ephemeri s time whi ch is a useful parameter in Newton' s
equati ons of motion.
This brings me to my second poi nt, namely, what do I mean when I speak of a
"reliabl e, " of an "accurat e, " clock that goes at a "uni form rat e". As Dr. McVi tti e
has al ready poi nt ed out, comparison of one clock wit h another may never est abl ish
whi ch one goes ahead and whi ch one falls back. Si nce cross-correlation between
two cl ocks l eads us nowhere, I propose t o consider for a moment auto-correlat ion
of one clock wit h it sel f.
FIGURE 2 shows such an arrangement where an ill uminat ed di agonal sli t in a
circular rot ati ng disk, representing the clock, i s locat ed at the cent er of curvature
R of a convex mi rror. In t his arrangement, the clock is opti cally mapped ont o
itsel f.
+)
If the disc rot at es with angul ar vel ocit y , t he angul ar positi on
1
of t he sl i t and

2
of its image are given in parametri c form (ti me t i s paramet er):

1
= t

2
= (t 2R/c)
where c i s t he velocit y of li ght. Eli minating t from this pair of equati ons expresses
the position of t he slit ' s image as a function of the positi on of the slit:

2
=
1
- 2R/ c

+)
The i nver si on i s compensat ed by maki ng t he hand a di agonal sl i t r at her t han a r adi al one.
FI GURE 2. Det er mi nat i on of t he accur acy of a cl ock
t hr ough aut o- cor r el at i on.
6
This means that the sl it will be trail ed by its image at an angl e of

2
-
1
= - 2R/ c
If the curvature of t he mi rror, it s di stance from the sl it and the vel ocit y of li ght
are for t he moment assumed t o be const ant , then it appears t hat the angul ar
displ acement bet ween slit and i mage wil l refl ect all vari ations i n t he rat e by
whi ch t hi s cl ock proceeds. If i ncreases, so wi l l and conversel y, a reduced w
will result in a smaller displ acement . One is tempt ed to say that a const ant
i ndeed ascert ains an accurat e clock t hat proceeds at a const ant rat e.
Neverthel ess, t his nai ve int erpretation has been subj ect ed to a severe criti cism by
E. A. Milne
++)
who ri ghtl y poi nts out that a const ant displacement means onl y
that its vari ati on vanishes. With
= - 2R/ c
this means that
= 0
or
0 dc
c
d dR
R
=

Cal cul ating the partial deri vatives suggested above, t his expression may be
rewritt en t o read
c
dc
R
dR d
= +

if i n spite of const ancy of the displ acement a dependency of wit h t he positi on

1
of t he sl ot is suspected, one may writ e:
1 1 1
d
dc
c
1
d
dR
R
1
d
d 1

This expression suggests that indeed a vari ati on of rat e at whi ch the clock
proceeds
0
d
d
1

may go unnoti ced by rel yi ng on an invari abl e displ acement , if t he mi rror fl aps or
wi ggl es, or if the veloci t y of li ght j erks back and fort h preci sely i n such a manner
as t o compensat e for the vari ation of . One may imagine a "law of nature" that
coupl es t he three quant ities R, c and
1
so that the relat ion obtai ns
) (
d
dR
R
1
d
dc
c
1
1
1 1
=

where t he function on t he ri ght hand side represents the expressi on

) d
) ( d
) (
1
) (
1
1
1
1

=

++)
Mi l ne' s cr i t i ci sm i s addr essed agai nst a "Gedanken exper i ment " whi ch i ncor por at es ent i r el y
di f fer ent physi cal devi ces. However , t he basi c f eat ur es i n bot h exper i ment s ar e equi val ent .
7
There are, of course, an i nfinit e number of funct ions c(
1
) or R(
1
) or couplings
bet ween R and c, whi ch wi ll satisfy the above differenti al equation.
However, the amusing upshot of this side issue is that what ever these l aws may be,
they must t ransmit wi th great accuracy the fluctuations in t he cl ock (
1
) t o t he
mirror and force it to wi ggl e or t o flap, or to the vel oci t y of li ght to ji ggle in
precise compensation of the fl uct uation of the cl ock so as t o make the devi ati on
to appear unchanged or, at l east, to change so littl e that ephemeris time can sti ll be
det ermined wit h the great precisi on mentioned earli er. Hence, these processes -
imagi nary or real - are of such redundancy that they do not int erfere wit h our use
of t he paramet er "time" as a t erti um comparatum whi ch faci litat es hi ghl y accurat e
det erminations of the simult aneit y of event s bel ongi ng to different cognitive
sequences.
References
1. ST. MARK: 14-30.
2. G. M. McVITTIE. 1961. Fact and Theory in Cosmology : 25. Eyr e &
Spottiswoode. London. (1961).
3. C. E. SHANNON & W. WEAVER. 1949. The Mathematical Theory of
Communi cation. : 39. Uni versit y of Illi nois Press. Urbana, Il l.